KAMI Dresden

What truth shows a cover picture? You have to ask more. You have to take a stand. You have to think. Everything without an exclamation point, because art can not provide answers and art can not demand anything. That's the conviction of Sven Sauer. He has been following the development of protest movements around the world for ten years. The current series "Kami", which is realized and staged in cooperation with the Dresden sound artist Bony Stoev, questions the media-colored perception. "Imagine, you see a demonstration, you may even feel sympathy for the goals, like affordable living space, stopping nuclear tests, criticizing the waste of taxpayers' money - these can be goals that everyone likes to pursue and which are worth going to the streets ", explains Sven Sauer during his visit to Dresden, looking for possible locations for his exhibition. He thinks of the Kraftwerk Mitte or a public square where it gets dark in the evening to play well with artificial light. For the "Kami exhibition", the square in front of The Dresden Frauenkirche is rather third-rate. Sven Sauer arranges with it and wants to show his art there. He hopes his questions will be discussed there. "What happens when protesters suddenly run out of violence? What about the goals then? What about those who are there? Supporters? Sympathizers? Opponents? What happens if my car is suddenly damaged during the demonstration? Will my position then stagger? And are we able to convey this distinction medially?" he asks. Of the thousands of pictures taken in Hong Kong, New York, Dresden or Kiev, the photographer can select a hundred and send them to an editor. Then more is the quality, the attention-increasing moment to choose an image for printing. And the viewer has only a fraction of a second of a complex protest movement, straight the snapshot to get his own picture. "Too little for the power that can be in a picture", says Sven Sauer.